Research Methods:
1. Questionnaires
- open/closed questions
- self completion vs interviewer
- The Postal Dimension
2. Interviews
- structured vs unstructured
- semi-structured
3. Observations
- overt vs covert
- Participant vs non-participant
4. Experiments
- Field vs Lab
5. Official Statistics
6. Other sources of secondary data
- content analysis
- Historical documents
Advantages and disadvantages of secondary data:
Advantages/strengths Disadvantages/limitations
May be the only available source of data May not be comprehensive, therefore unrepresentative
Readily available, cheap to use Official statistics can lack validity
Can provide data that would be impossible for an Difficulties in deciding whether data is:
individual to collect e.g. census data, official statistics - authentic or genuine
- credible
Often representative - representative of a wider social group
- has the same meaning as the time it was produced
May cover a long timespan — e.g. to show changes over
- being interpreted correctly
time
- was collected using sound research methods
Can provide useful background
Personal diaries, letters etc give a unique perspective
Often publicly available, can avoid ethical problems e.g
breach of personal confidences
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, Quantitive methods of research Qualitative methods of research
Mainly used by positivists and include: Mainly used by interpretivists and include:
-the laboratory experiment (rarely used) -uncontrolled field experiments
-structured questionnaires -open ended questionnaires
-structured interviews -unstructured interviews
-non-participant observations -personal accounts — diaries, letters etc
-social surveys -over or covert participants and sometimes non-
-official statistics participant observation
-the comparative method
-content analysis
Experiments
Advantages/strengths Disadvantages/limitations
Hypotheses can be tested in controlled conditions — In sociology it is difficult to isolate a single cause of a
allows sociologists to establish causation social issue, and to isolate variables for testing in a field
experiment
Easy to isolate and manipulate variables to identify the Ethical problems: experiments need to treat one group
causes of events (except in field experiments) differently from another and compare results. This may
have negative effects on the experimental group, e.g
Rosenthal and Jacobs self-fulfilling prophecy
Reliable — can be replicated and results will be People may object to being experiment on, and if they are
consistent deceived/do not know they're involved in an experiment
its unethical
Enable comparisons to be made with other experimental Often only possible in small scale setting, which may be
research unrepresentative
Positivists see them as a detached, objective and scientific Interpretivists emphasise conditions are artificial so may
means of studying behaviour not provide valid explanations of real-world behaviour —
criticism of lab experiments — in a lab experiment you
cannot put society in a lab
Field experiments are not artificial situations so more Risk the Hawthorne effect* undermining the validity of
ecologically valid, participant may not be aware they are findings
being studied
Interpretivists see field experiments as producing more In field experiments researches cant control all variables
valid information than artificial conditions of laboratory so its hard to establish cause and effect.
experiments.
*Hawthorne effect is when a group/individual knows they are being observed and their behaviour
changes as a result, can potentially affect the validity of most research methods e.g. people may not tell
the truth in interviews etc or just simply respond differently from their usual, everyday behaviour.
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1. Questionnaires
- open/closed questions
- self completion vs interviewer
- The Postal Dimension
2. Interviews
- structured vs unstructured
- semi-structured
3. Observations
- overt vs covert
- Participant vs non-participant
4. Experiments
- Field vs Lab
5. Official Statistics
6. Other sources of secondary data
- content analysis
- Historical documents
Advantages and disadvantages of secondary data:
Advantages/strengths Disadvantages/limitations
May be the only available source of data May not be comprehensive, therefore unrepresentative
Readily available, cheap to use Official statistics can lack validity
Can provide data that would be impossible for an Difficulties in deciding whether data is:
individual to collect e.g. census data, official statistics - authentic or genuine
- credible
Often representative - representative of a wider social group
- has the same meaning as the time it was produced
May cover a long timespan — e.g. to show changes over
- being interpreted correctly
time
- was collected using sound research methods
Can provide useful background
Personal diaries, letters etc give a unique perspective
Often publicly available, can avoid ethical problems e.g
breach of personal confidences
1 of 7
, Quantitive methods of research Qualitative methods of research
Mainly used by positivists and include: Mainly used by interpretivists and include:
-the laboratory experiment (rarely used) -uncontrolled field experiments
-structured questionnaires -open ended questionnaires
-structured interviews -unstructured interviews
-non-participant observations -personal accounts — diaries, letters etc
-social surveys -over or covert participants and sometimes non-
-official statistics participant observation
-the comparative method
-content analysis
Experiments
Advantages/strengths Disadvantages/limitations
Hypotheses can be tested in controlled conditions — In sociology it is difficult to isolate a single cause of a
allows sociologists to establish causation social issue, and to isolate variables for testing in a field
experiment
Easy to isolate and manipulate variables to identify the Ethical problems: experiments need to treat one group
causes of events (except in field experiments) differently from another and compare results. This may
have negative effects on the experimental group, e.g
Rosenthal and Jacobs self-fulfilling prophecy
Reliable — can be replicated and results will be People may object to being experiment on, and if they are
consistent deceived/do not know they're involved in an experiment
its unethical
Enable comparisons to be made with other experimental Often only possible in small scale setting, which may be
research unrepresentative
Positivists see them as a detached, objective and scientific Interpretivists emphasise conditions are artificial so may
means of studying behaviour not provide valid explanations of real-world behaviour —
criticism of lab experiments — in a lab experiment you
cannot put society in a lab
Field experiments are not artificial situations so more Risk the Hawthorne effect* undermining the validity of
ecologically valid, participant may not be aware they are findings
being studied
Interpretivists see field experiments as producing more In field experiments researches cant control all variables
valid information than artificial conditions of laboratory so its hard to establish cause and effect.
experiments.
*Hawthorne effect is when a group/individual knows they are being observed and their behaviour
changes as a result, can potentially affect the validity of most research methods e.g. people may not tell
the truth in interviews etc or just simply respond differently from their usual, everyday behaviour.
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